SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Sunday - June 20, 2021

 

Sunday - June 20, 2021

"The happy person in this life needs friends.” 

― St. Thomas Aquinas

 

June 20, 2021

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 95

 

Reading 1                                                     Jb 38:1, 8-11

The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said:

    Who shut within doors the sea,

        when it burst forth from the womb;

    when I made the clouds its garment

        and thick darkness its swaddling bands?

    When I set limits for it

        and fastened the bar of its door,

    and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther,

        and here shall your proud waves be stilled!

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31

 

R. (1b) Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.

 

They who sailed the sea in ships,

    trading on the deep waters,

These saw the works of the LORD

    and his wonders in the abyss.

R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.

His command raised up a storm wind

    which tossed its waves on high.

They mounted up to heaven; they sank to the depths;

    their hearts melted away in their plight.

R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.

They cried to the LORD in their distress;

    from their straits he rescued them,

He hushed the storm to a gentle breeze,

    and the billows of the sea were stilled.

R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.

They rejoiced that they were calmed,

    and he brought them to their desired haven.

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his kindness

    and his wondrous deeds to the children of men.

R. Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting.

 

Reading 2                                                     2 Cor 5:14-17

Brothers and sisters:

The love of Christ impels us,

once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;

therefore, all have died.

He indeed died for all,

so that those who live might no longer live for themselves

but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

 

Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;

even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,

yet now we know him so no longer.

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:

the old things have passed away;

behold, new things have come.

 

 

Alleluia                                                                      Lk 7:16

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

A great prophet has risen in our midst

God has visited his people.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel                                                                       Mk 4:35-41

On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:

“Let us cross to the other side.”

Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.

And other boats were with him.

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,

so that it was already filling up.

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.

They woke him and said to him,

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

He woke up,

rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet!  Be still!”

The wind ceased and there was great calm.

Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?

Do you not yet have faith?”

They were filled with great awe and said to one another,

“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

 

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Calming the Storms

Some people believe that destructive storms are punishments from God. While it is true that people deserve to be punished for their immorality, Jesus took the Father's righteous wrath upon his own body, accepting torture, shedding blood, and dying, so that all sinners could be saved from the justice we deserve.

 

Jesus wants to calm our storms, not cause them.

 

Hardships are not punishments. They are the best occasions for growing closer to God. All of us have seasons of storms in our lives. Each of them are invitations to realize that Jesus is walking with us through it all, whether we deserve his help or not. They're opportunities to learn more knowledge, gain more wisdom, and grow stronger in true faith. It's a time of becoming more humble. Because of our increased need to rely on God, we discover more about his love, but only if we stop insisting that God should behave like a magic genie that we control to resolve our problems the way we think it should happen.

 

Some of the storms in this world continue raging because we don't do enough to bring the presence of Christ into them. After we've gained from our experiences, we're supposed to help others endure the storms of their lives. We have the earthly hands that Jesus wants to use to calm their storms. And then, surprise! It is in this outreach that we realize that our sufferings have not been in vain; this calms our stormy clouds of despair and regret.

 

Often, we create our own storms by making sinful decisions, but God doesn't want us to get punished. He sends plenty of red-flag warnings and then, if we get into a hurricane anyway, Jesus invites us to calm the turmoil by reconciling with him.

 

Whether the storms brew by sin or by nature, if we cry out like the disciples in this Sunday's Gospel reading -- "Lord, don't you care that we're perishing?" -- Jesus replies, "Why are you scared? How little faith you have! My peace is already here."

 

Today's Prayer

 

Thank you Lord, because in the worst moments of my life, You are silent but You never leave me. Nothing escapes Your power to protect me. You are present in everything, with me always. Amen.

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God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”